


Dog Tags and Warm Beer

by Milla_GSD



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Ben is sort of there, Dog Tags, Minor Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 07:37:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18006611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milla_GSD/pseuds/Milla_GSD
Summary: Klaus goes back to the VFW, determined to spend some time with Dave, even if it’s only a picture of him. When the other members start to bully him once more, there isn't a sibling to stick up for him, but someone else inside does.





	Dog Tags and Warm Beer

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a tumblr prompt from angel-starbeam!
> 
> Still trying to figure out my voice for Klaus. Might have the watch the series again (oh darn!), so please have patience with me! He's definitely different than what I'm used to.

Standing in front of a window, Klaus takes a deep breath. He releases it slowly as his eyes flick over the sign on the glass once more. “All who served are welcome,” the sign reads and Klaus feels his heart race as he remembers the last time he tried this... At least then, he had backup.

“You deserve to be here just as much as anyone else inside,” he tells himself. He knows if he walks away without trying once more, he’ll never have the courage to try again. His hand goes to his chest where a pair of dog tags hang around his neck, and he runs his fingers over the metal that never seems to warm up. Taking another steadying breath, Klaus finally reaches for the door and pushes his way inside.

It’s just as dimly lit inside as it was last time he was here. The air is filled with stale smoke, even though only a few people sit inside. Some part of Klaus recognizes the sound of music playing behind the bar, but Klaus doesn’t process much more than some strange melody.

There are fewer people inside than last time, which helps calm Klaus down a small bit. Voices try their best to trickle into his mind, but Klaus ignores them, practicing the techniques he’s been working on. He just wants an hour to himself; the dead can wait that long, especially since everyone is just asking for waffles for some reason. None of the voices are the one he wants to hear anyways.

They never are.

Klaus looks over towards the wall that holds a small area dedicated to the war he found himself stranded in and slowly makes his way over to it, his hand back on the tags around his neck. “Dave,” he whispers softly. He just wants one glimpse, one short glance at the grainy face behind the glass in the frame...

There’s a body in front of him, a living one, and Klaus manages to stop himself before running into the man. “What are you doing back here.”

Klaus’s eyes meet cold, hard eyes that seem to hold endless amounts of malice. The words “village idiot” resonate in his ears and he has to fight the urge to flinch. “You must have me mixed up with someone else. See, I just got back to the Land of the Free yesterday!” Klaus says, a smile breaking out on his lips.

“Well, no unit I know would ever take a sissy like you.” The man walks closer to Klaus, and Klaus does his best to stand up straight and return the look he is being given. “That whole ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ nonsense is just bullshit. No way anyone would want to spend their time looking after a fairy.”

Klaus continues to stare the man down, until his smile starts to freeze on his face. “Guess it was a good thing I was the one doing all the looking after then,” he tells him, voice quiet. Klaus looks away from the man and starts to push his way past him.

A hand lands on his chest and Klaus feels his smile start to grow hard. The picture is so close, close enough for him to almost make out the grainy faces of his troop and his teeth start to grit as he’s pushed back a step. “You aren’t welcome here, sissy.”

Klaus can feel his eyes harden as he ignores Ben shaking his head at him a few feet away. “You’re really going to want to let go of me,” Klaus says, his voice icy. He turns his head slightly to look at the man again, but another voice stops him before he has a chance to make any threats.

“Leave him alone, Sal,” the voice says and Klaus turns to it, watching someone rise from the bar. “He’s got just as much right to be here as anyone else in this room.”

“Oh yeah? And how the hell do you know that?” The man named Sal says loudly in Klaus’s ear and he has to fight not to flinch again.

The speaker makes her way over to where the two men are standing, arms crossed over her chest. “Pretty sure that tattoo that anyone a mile away could see explains plenty. Not to mention the tags hanging around his neck he hasn’t been able to keep his hands off of since he walked in here. Stop being an ass, Sal.”

Klaus can feel his face soften at the woman’s words, surprised that a stranger is noticing something not even his own family has noticed yet. Sal finally drops his arm with one last foul look at Klaus and grumbles something about “fairies” as he retakes his seat. Klaus doesn’t spare him another glance as he takes in the appearance of the woman who spoke for the first time. Her red hair glows a fiery hot even in the dim lighting of the bar and Klaus feels himself drawn to her.

“You doing ok?” The woman asks catching Klaus’s eye. Klaus only nods, his icy gaze melting into a soft smile. “He’s a lot of bark, but not much bite anymore. Tends to forget younger people are allowed in here just as much as his aging ass is.”

Klaus snorts, looking over to where Ben is also chuckling behind his book. Klaus appreciates his brother trying to give him as much privacy as possible and turns back to the woman. “The name is Klaus, by the way,” he says raising a brow at her.

“Morrigan,” she replies and Klaus nods. It’s a nice name, fitting. “So where did you serve? I see that tattoo says something about airborne, so no where easy, I’m assuming.”

Klaus sighs, eyes flicking away. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you. Honestly, sometimes I still don’t even believe it myself.”

He can tell Morrigan is staring at him, but he doesn’t feel any malice in her gaze. He looks back at her and opens himself up as much as possible. Morrigan finally nods before looking around the room. Klaus watches as her gaze never seems to land on anywhere specific, as if she’s looking at something much further away.

“Guess it doesn’t really matter,” she finally states. “It’s all Hell at the end of the day, isn’t it?”

Klaus looks back over to the small display, nodding his head. “Yeah, something like that...” As his voice trails off, his hand goes back to the tags and his mind drifts off for a moment. Gunfire and screams fill his ears, the noise growing louder and louder. He can’t catch his breath and has to shut his eyes to even start to push it all away again, hand fiddling with the tags over and over again.

“Those aren’t your tags, are they?”

Morrigan’s voice breaks through the noise and Klaus’s eyes fly open, his breathing evening out. Klaus starts to turn to look back at her, but his eyes land on that picture again, finding the blurry face he longs so much for. He wants to answer her, but he can only clutch the metal plates.

A hand lands on his shoulder and Klaus turns to look at it, following it back up to her face. The soft look on Morrigan’s face almost let’s him think that she knows exactly what he’s feeling. “Trust me, we’ve all been there,” she tells him, voice matching the softness on her face. “If you need a minute, take it. I’ll keep an eye on you.”

Klaus blinks slowly at her before nodding. Morrigan squeezes his shoulder before heading back over to the bar. Klaus takes a deep breath, looking over at Ben who only nods at him, before looking back at the picture.

For the first time since coming inside, Klaus is finally allowed to walk over to the display set up for the Vietnam War. His eyes land on Dave’s face, so young and happy, even as he was forced to live through Hell. Ignoring everything else hanging on the display board, Klaus gently kisses his fingertips before pressing them against the glass.

His heart feels so heavy. He wishes he had tried the briefcase before they ever ended up on the front lines, wishes he had dragged Dave away from the war. He knows Dave would have been mad at him, the part that cared so much about protecting a country that hated him was more than Klaus could handle sometimes, but Dave would have gotten over it eventually. They would have had time to fight about it and make up and just...live...

“I...I miss you,” Klaus whispers, blinking back the tears flooding his eyes. “Everyday, I miss you so much...And I don’t know why you won’t come to me, even now, but I’ll keep trying...I’ll keep going, because I know that’s what you would want from me...”

Klaus presses his head against the glass, mind reeling through every bit of those ten months they got to spend together. “You really were my whole world..”

Klaus takes a few more moments before finally pulling back. He gives the man in the picture next to himself one last smile, the memory of that day replaying quickly in his mind. “I wish I could see you, wish you would come to me...” Klaus takes one more breath before finally turning away from the picture. He looks around the room, catching a few pairs of eyes that quickly turn away, before finding Morrigan easily.

Morrigan is watching him and waves him over when she sees that he is looking her way. Klaus sits next to her after walking over to the bar, and sighs before waving off the beer she offers him. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m currently trying this whole...sober...thing.”

Morrigan nods before pushing the two glasses away from them. Klaus watches as she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a set of dog tags that look newer than the pair he wears. She holds them out to Klaus who takes them hesitantly. At her nod, Klaus looks them over, quickly noticing the name stamped on them does not match the name of the woman next to him.

“She was the first person in my life to ever see me for me,” Morrigan states after a moment, her eyes looking somewhere else. “I met her overseas. Ended up in the same unit after a new mission was ordered. We shared our first kiss the night before I watched her bleed out after getting hit with a slug in the gut.”

Klaus recognizes the look in her eyes as she relives that moment over and over. It’s a personal torment he knows all to well. A few seconds later, a noise from Ben makes him turn and look at his brother, who is now sitting with a beautiful blonde woman. Klaus blinks before turning back to Morrigan, noticing who the blonde is really staring at.

“They don’t usually let you takes tags anymore, but she had no family listed, so I was allowed to have them,” Morrigan finishes with a whispers. Her voice is heavy and Klaus wishes he could make her see what he’s seeing.

He reaches out a hand, placing it on her shoulder, mirroring her gesture from earlier. He slides the tags back in front of Morrigan and gives her a moment to gather herself.

“I watched Dave die in a pretty similar manner,” Klaus whispers, blocking out the memory as it threatens to wash over him. “I took his tags off of him before the rest of my unit had a chance to drag me away. I knew he had no one left in the world, no one that would have cared one way or the other about getting his tags. It was the only piece of him I could take with me...”

“And you didn’t want to leave him behind...” Morrigan adds.

Klaus can only nod, happy to have someone who understands even as his heart hurts for her. The two of them sit at the bar until the rest of the place empties out, the beers in front of them warm and the sky dark outside the windows. Klaus feels better for the first time in days, even as they share sad memories.

When the two of them finally get up to leave, Morrigan walks over to the display that holds Dave’s picture. Klaus watches as she takes out a small key, unlocking the case, and pulls out the picture frame from inside. She holds it in her hands for a moment, and Klaus knows she is connecting some dots that don’t make any sense.

To her credit though, Morrigan only turns to Klaus and hands him the picture. “This belongs more to you than it does to us,” she says softly. Klaus takes the frame from her gently, hand running gently over it before pressing it against his chest. In that moment, he knows that he is going to do every thing he can to learn how to control his powers.

One day, he’ll be able to repay her kindness.

“Same time next week?” Morrigan asks once they make it outside.

Klaus looks over to Ben and the blonde woman, who both give him encouraging smiles. “Yeah,” he finally says with a smile. “Yeah, that sounds like a plan.”


End file.
